“You know your real estate is in bad shape when there is a game app that displays Vancouver’s Science World and teaches you how to be a money hungry real estate developer.”

Posted on 20 May 2018 | 77 Comments


“You know your real estate is in bad shape when there is a game app that displays Science World and teaches you how to be a money hungry real estate developer: #vanRe #vanpoli”
– tweet from Brette A. Mullins @BretteMullins 3:27 PM – 18 May 2018

This entry was posted in 05. Where do Buyers get the money?. Bookmark the permalink.

77 responses to ““You know your real estate is in bad shape when there is a game app that displays Vancouver’s Science World and teaches you how to be a money hungry real estate developer.””

  1. Sebastien | 20 May 2018 at 4:59 pm | Reply

    Hi Everyone,

    As a -80% bear, how should I vote in the upcoming elections:
    For mayor: COPE? Green?
    For city council: OneCity? ProVancouver? COPE? Green?

    Thanks,

    • vreaa | 21 May 2018 at 5:25 pm | Reply

      Great question.
      Is there a site where one can see clear position statements for each party?

      • Keith | 22 May 2018 at 2:17 pm |

        The best sites for civic politics are Frances Bula’s blog, at francesbula.com, and pricetags.ca.

        Frances Bula has been the civic affairs reporter for the Vancouver Sun for a very long time. Pricetags is the blog co edited by former city councillor Gordon Price. Both blogs offer complete civic political coverage, and the commenters are often from the development community, civic interest groups, or the city planning community.

        If you hate bike lanes, avoid pricetags. Another fun read is Commercial Drive historian Jak King’s blog http://jaksview3.wordpress.com. He tries to stop commenting on civic politics, but keeps getting drawn back in.

    • space889 | 22 May 2018 at 10:25 am | Reply

      Vote COPE – they are redder than red commies, even though their leader Meena Wong claims to hate Chinese Communists. They will absolutely trash the Vancouver RE prices, assuming you still want to live here afterwards and can afford the property tax rates – after all we are lowest rate in Canada so obviously people need to pay more!

      • Sebastien | 22 May 2018 at 8:24 pm |

        Thanks.
        It seems that COPE is more obsessed with freezing rents than torturing speculators, astronaut mamas and homeowners in general. Onecity is the total opposite. It’ll be interesting to see a council with both parties in it.

  3. space889 | 22 May 2018 at 10:27 am | Reply

    You people are way too wound up!! Seriously, it’s a game! There are probably tens if not hundreds of thousands of RE type game out there. There is already a real life Monopoly online game that came out like 10 years ago that included pretty much every major cities including Vancouver.

    Should take it as a sign Vancouver is making it in the world recognition and Science World is an awesome architecture design.

  4. The Auteur | 22 May 2018 at 12:44 pm | Reply

    [LAT] – Seattle’s Space Needle, showing signs of age at 55, is getting a ‘space lift’ — at a cost of up to $100 million

    …”It began as a crude sketch on a cocktail napkin. Someone thought it looked like a saucer on a stick. Four-hundred days, $4.5 million and 605 feet later, it loomed majestically over the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair.

    Like a saucer on a stick.

    Its creators were going to call it the Space Cage, which made no sense. They later agreed on the Space Needle, pretending not to see the saucer on top.

    It opened in 1962 as the tallest structure west of the Mississippi. Today, at age 55, it has dropped to the sixth-tallest — in Seattle.”…

    http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-seattle-space-needle-2017-story.html

  5. Arnie Carnegie | 22 May 2018 at 2:20 pm | Reply

    Look at the Ford clowns in Toronto. The dead one got in by promising the driving electorate he would eliminate vehicle registration fees. The one running (waddling) now is promising cheaper gas. No wonder people don’t bother voting between tweedle dum and tweedle dee. The political scene is repellent.
    For those interested in political machinations and seeing the hand in glove relationship between corporations, the IMF, and political lapdogs, Naomi Klein’s documentary on Argentina: the Take, is choice. The worker cooperatives are inspirational.
    Spain’s Mondragon Corporation has over 75,000 employees in worker collectives. In Italy’s Emilia Romagna region, worker collectives produce a third of GDP. This is real voting.

  6. El Ninja | 22 May 2018 at 3:21 pm | Reply

    The mainstream media have taken over where public schools left off: Indoctrinating Canadians with socialist propaganda. The sad result are people like Chile-con-Arnie, Keith the Commie, and others who think it’s okay to put people in cages, at gunpoint, if they don’t hand over their property.

    Bourgeois-hypocrite Naomi Klein? Worker collectives? COPE? Give me a break.

    Self ownership and the non-aggression principal. Check ’em out. Here’s a starter:

    • Keith | 26 May 2018 at 9:09 am | Reply

      Not Keith the Commie. If you’re going to use labels, they should have a modicum of accuracy.

      • El Ninja | 26 May 2018 at 2:12 pm |

        If you believe in the power of the state, you’re my enemy.

        If you believe in the state, over the freedom and autonomy of the individual, you’re no different than those that supported Mao, you’re no different than those who supported Hitler.

        Individual sovereignty or nothing!

      • Keith | 26 May 2018 at 4:39 pm |

        I believe in a wary, mutually suspicious balance of power. Balance Daniel san, balance.

      • El Ninja | 26 May 2018 at 6:43 pm |

        Funny you should evoke Miyagi. He preached the non-aggression principle, which states that we should never initiate violence. Self-defence is totally legitimate, but the initiation of violence never is.

        The state initiates violence on individuals by confiscating their property under threat of force.

        If you don’t comply, men with guns will come to your house and take you to jail.

        And if you try to escape, they will shoot you.

  7. Arnie Carnegie | 22 May 2018 at 7:57 pm | Reply

    Poor Ninja. All that twerking with his dog has drained the blood from his head and made him easy to indoctrinate by billionaire-owned media. Subscribe now. Only .99 cents a week. You too can be as sucked in as ninja.

  8. Arnie Carnegie | 22 May 2018 at 8:15 pm | Reply

    2796 16th Ave E: assessed around $1.6M – listed close to $2M. Been at this price for a long time without budging. Has some of the most execrable ad copy – just weird.

  9. Arnie Carnegie | 22 May 2018 at 8:31 pm | Reply

    There are the deluded that flap their lips and bark like seals at every pronouncement by “experts from afar”, or “technical analyses” by local wannabe pundit mama’s boys with no listings that promote their viewpoint with a view to capturing a quality low price listing from a gullible seller.
    I’ve been reading about real estate for 25 years including much of the material crafted by the industry for the industry. Ozzie Jurock is one of the only ones worth reading.
    I don’t give a rat’s ass about broad analyses and self-promoting jackasses. If someone out there cares to put out an actual quality address that they think shows signs of a dramatic decline in value – step up and state it – not renoflips and ridiculous garish new-builds; not horrible traffic streets. Find a really good listing and it will be gone. Let’s hear it – a real desirable address.
    You want cheap – try Moncton.

    • El Ninja | 23 May 2018 at 7:36 am | Reply

      Arnie is a sociopath who aggressively bullies anyone who disagrees with him. Of course, all bullies are actually cowards. Keyboard bullies even more so.

  10. El Ninja | 23 May 2018 at 7:36 am | Reply

    More signs of the end:

  11. Arnie Carnegie | 23 May 2018 at 9:53 am | Reply

    Speaking of mama’s boys wannabe pundits and psycho twerker trolls who love charts and bs generalities. Pick a verifiable concrete quality address that is falling in value. Can’t do it. S**t or get off the pulpit – desperate deluded Ninja.

    • El Ninja | 23 May 2018 at 10:27 am | Reply

      Watch as bulls try to weasel their way out of their mistaken forecast by moving the goalposts. It’s not whether the market as a whole is falling, you see, it’s whether “quality” addresses are. Of course, with “quality” being completely subjective, this is a no-lose tactic. Point to any property facing a price reduction and they will claim it does not meet this criterion. How convenient! Anyone with half a brain can see through this BS.

  12. Arnie Carnegie | 23 May 2018 at 11:18 am | Reply

    Ninja ponders weightily … s**t or get off the pot … s**t or get off the pot. Makes the strategic decision to look at more charts and continue blowing it out of his ass. Considers having a chart-viewing party. Invite some blowhards. Have a nice whine. Twerk and troll.
    Ninja can’t find an actual physical address that corresponds to his delusional thinking.

    • El Ninja | 23 May 2018 at 11:26 am | Reply

      At the end of the day, Arnie is terrified that his own “quality” address is losing value.

      Too bad for him it is neither quality, nor holding value.

      Bullying others, and spamming about this listing and that, will not change reality.

  13. Arnie Carnegie | 23 May 2018 at 12:12 pm | Reply

    I give specific, detailed property assessments – real addresses – that’s why it’s called real estate. Ninja blows confused generalities out of his ass – like a hippo energizer twerker.

  15. Arnie Carnegie | 25 May 2018 at 10:44 am | Reply

    3437 Dieppe: assessed $1.758M. Listed at $2.1M – a ludicrous $342K bump. Head thumper attic and unfinished basement; flanking an alley; dreadful dysfunctional tiny kitchen; where’s the kitchen vent? where are the counters? dishonest square footage; lousy location. House should have been scraped and replaced in 2012 when the laneway was built. Silly staging. Nice green tape around the window a/c unit. Smiley Douche’s only listing.

  16. Arnie Carnegie | 25 May 2018 at 11:00 am | Reply

    3638 Vimy: over a million spent constructing this vomit-coloured custom caca on a slope. Listed exactly at last year’s assessed. Bonus aromas from Wendy’s burger joint.

  17. Arnie Carnegie | 25 May 2018 at 11:17 am | Reply

    787 32nd E: 110-yr-old fixed up house in a No Frills location. Listed at $587K over assessed. No indication that work was done with permits. How do you get a mortgage at this kind of price. Currently leased at $2,400/mo. That does not come close to carrying this alligator.

  18. El Ninja | 25 May 2018 at 3:29 pm | Reply

    Current bearish pressures for Vancouver and Canadian real estate:

    – New property, foreign buyer, etc. taxes
    – Rising interest rates
    – New mortgage and lending rules
    – Increasing capital controls & information sharing with foreign governments
    – Falling sales and prices — self-fulfilling sentiment shift from greed to fear
    – Bearish media reports increasing
    – Canada 2nd class economy with awful leadership, massive deficits, higher taxes and regulations

    Current bullish pressures:

    – Um…
    – Give me a sec…
    – Uh…
    – Bear with me…
    – I got it! Did you know that in Vancouver you can windsurf and ski on the same day??

  19. Arnie Carnegie | 25 May 2018 at 5:28 pm | Reply

    The “Ninja” – sitting on the banks of de Nile; looking at charts instead of reality; propellering crap out with his little hippo tail.

    • El Ninja | 25 May 2018 at 5:57 pm | Reply

      “Propellering”.

      Arnie dreams of me in exotic lands, and has even been inspired to invent new words. I don’t know whether to be flattered or spooked.

      What I do know is that Vancouver real estate is toast.

  20. Arnie Carnegie | 25 May 2018 at 6:05 pm | Reply

    Look up propellering hippo – there’s “Ninja’s” inspiration.

  21. Arnie Carnegie | 27 May 2018 at 12:33 pm | Reply

    5188 Sherbrooke St: bought 2014 for $1.58M – listed @ $2.189M.
    The most important window in a house us the one over the kitchen sink. Here, it has a stunning view of the neighbour’s asphalt roof. The view above the sink in the rental unit is of the kitchen wall. There’s a w/d stacker alongside. Who wouldn’t like doing laundry in the kitchen.
    This 70-year-old shouldabinascraper had the reno treatment and was “nominated for a Georgie in 2011” – which says a lot about the selection process. Pay the fee. Become a member. Nominate a dog house. This turd of a house has cred. It was nominated.

  22. Arnie Carnegie | 27 May 2018 at 1:33 pm | Reply

    1275 24th Ave E: bought 2016 for $1.56M – listed @ $2.198M. This appalling old-timer RENOTURD is “STRAIGHT OUT OF A DESIGNER MAGAZINE!” What designer magazine? “DESIGNER DOGHOUSE”?
    Listed as 2,470 sq ft. No Way. Assessment states 1,644 sq ft. They’re counting the entire head thumper attic as living space. Doesn’t work that way.
    Also faces a dreaded T junction.
    The silly sidewalk pergola is illegal.
    Like the sliding doors.
    Could be worth close to what they paid for it in 2016 – not $600K extra. WTF.

  23. El Ninja | 28 May 2018 at 9:09 am | Reply

    There’s a battle unfolding about Eby’s property taxes — fascinating to watch. Proponents have a point insofar as foreign buyers need to contribute alongside everyone else if they want to enjoy public services, and this tax may be one way of clawing back some of the revenues that would otherwise have been collected if these people paid income tax and weren’t generally a bunch of free riders. But they’re wrong that the tax is “fair” or “just desserts” for “wealthy” landowners. Many of the homeowners who will be affected by this tax are not to blame for the increase in prices, and changing the rules mid-game is not fair. They’re also wrong that taxes are the solution to affordability. Their impact on prices depends on the elasticity of demand and it’s not clear that demand is totally elastic. It’s the market itself that will restore balance and the less that government meddles, the better.

  24. space889 | 28 May 2018 at 10:18 am | Reply

    To the NDP, taxes & more gov’t are solution to everything, even if those type of polices have been tried in communists countries and shown to fail miserably.

    The problem with NDP is that this wealth tax is exactly that – a wealth tax and a tax grab. The money is not dedicated to fund schools system, it goes into general revenue. There is no income tax offset nor anything for seniors who lived in those houses for 40 years+. It doesn’t do anything to help average working family. Yeah, it hurts those “filthy rich” bastards some, but it doesn’t actually help people. It’s like instead of making the bottom 50% better off, and close the wealth gap that way, let’s just make everyone poorer so we are all equal.

  25. Sebastien | 31 May 2018 at 2:30 pm | Reply

    Has anyone else have been to myrealtycheck.ca? May might be the beginning of the inflection point.

    • white_angelos_low_carb_diet | 31 May 2018 at 9:38 pm | Reply

      i think -ve yielding bonds was the insanity peak … buckle up for a long and lumpy ride back to normalcy … don’t worry … trudeau’s got it … anyone see his presser on the tariffs? … lolz! … i’m half-convinced trump does stuff like that just to shake the tree and see what sort of loose junk falls out

  26. Arnie Carnegie | 31 May 2018 at 9:38 pm | Reply

    5206 Chester – new, stupidly staged, stupid Van Spec Dreck, but has an appropriate huge framed poster of an ostrich’s head and neck in the usual hole-in-the-ground bsmt suite. What it says is, if you have the brain and neck of an ostrich, you’ll be happy watching your landlord’s feet. There is an equally large print of a birch forest – a basement dweller’s simulacrum of a view.
    A No Frills location close to the graveyard. Blech blech and blech. $2.8 mil.

  27. Arnie Carnegie | 31 May 2018 at 9:52 pm | Reply

    242 45th Ave E: bought and sold twice in 2016, then scraped: $1.5M to $1.738M – a quarter mil bump in just six months. Listed with a new Van Spec Dreck – an eye-popping $2.989M. With taxishmaxi, your daddy better be rich.

  28. Arnie Carnegie | 31 May 2018 at 10:01 pm | Reply

    3187 Venables: “European built” … what does that mean?
    Have you ever seen a blurb proclaiming Asian built, or African built. How about Greek built? Wait a second … Greece is now a European country …. that’s it … must have been built by Greeks. Opa!

  29. Arnie Carnegie | 31 May 2018 at 10:46 pm | Reply

    2797 William St – blurb calls it a “Tuscan Villa” – code for Italian. Assessment calls it “standard”. It’s the difference between spaghetti and pasta – about five bucks, or in this case five hundred thousand. Blurb also references “Euro owners”. Built in 1946, they’re either dead or gaga.

  30. El Ninja | 1 June 2018 at 9:54 am | Reply

    Arnie’s spam… I feel like Venkman in Ghostbusters. “He slimed me”.

  31. Arnie Carnegie | 1 June 2018 at 1:36 pm | Reply

    After having a hot twerk, Ninja slimed himself; and his poor dog.

  34. Arnie Carnegie | 3 June 2018 at 1:03 pm | Reply

    3375 29th Ave: the pink pimple on 29th. The irony here is that the rodent proclaims you won’t hear the Skytrain. How could you over the roar of the ferocious traffic on 29th. I’ve been to the little Cariboo Park there a few times with my kids, but the vehicular noise is utterly intolerable. It’s the plethora of garbage listings like this that skew idiot charts and graphs.

  35. El Ninja | 6 June 2018 at 9:12 am | Reply

    Australia, like Canada, is toast:

    https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/fall-in-house-prices-is-quite-a-bit-larger-than-expected-says-anz-20180606-p4zjr9.html

    Also noteworthy is that the use of “bubblespeak” — linguistic sleights-of-hand employed by real estate pumpers to veil bad news and soothe the sheeple — seems universal.

    Phrases cited in this article: “downside pressure”, “headwinds”, “recovery coming later”.

    LOL.

    I’m reminded of Monty Python’s, “Just a flesh wound.”

  36. Arnie Carnegie | 6 June 2018 at 12:33 pm | Reply

    5495 Fleming St: GHASTLY reno on a hugely sloping corner lot on the MASSIVE DUMFRIES BOG. Listed at a MILLION OVER purchase price two years ago. Plethora of images of the large inflatable SWAN in the pool is indicative of the ASININITY of the staging of this 69-year-old OVERCOOKED AGED TURKEY. “Designed” by Hazel and Brown.

  37. El Ninja | 6 June 2018 at 12:35 pm | Reply

    Housing peaked in 2017 in Van and TO. This year will be the peak in outlying areas (Fraser Valley, Vancouver Island, etc.). Next year everything will be down. And the year after that. And the one after that. And so on, for about 10 years.

  38. Arnie Carnegie | 6 June 2018 at 12:52 pm | Reply

    1505 33rd Ave E: as bad a location as it gets – on 33rd, near Knight, flanking a T intersection. Godawful. A petrifying cacophonous hideous location. Listed at a million over purchase price 7 years ago.

  39. Sebastien | 7 June 2018 at 1:22 pm | Reply

    7531 Costain Court, Richmond
    Dec 18:$2,098,000
    Jun 5: $1,490,000
    Change: – 608,000 -29%
    A: $1,700,900

    That’s gotta hurt!

  40. -80% Bear | 7 June 2018 at 2:24 pm | Reply

    5139 Sapphire Place, Richmond
    Apr 10:$1,790,000
    Jun 4: $1,388,000
    Change: – 402000 -22%
    A: $1,467,000

    • Disgruntled | 7 June 2018 at 8:52 pm | Reply

      Again Nu Stream Realty Inc. lies. Try offering them $200,000 above asking they will laugh in your face.

  41. Arnie Carnegie | 7 June 2018 at 6:34 pm | Reply

    I’m not a Richmond expert. Would never consider buying there. It’s one massive sea level bog. In a tsunami …
    But, unlike most Vancouverites, go there often enough that I don’t get lost.
    7531 Costain – facing the dreaded T in a dead end; nowhere near Skytrain; weird undesirable pie-shaped lot with no lane. A dreadful, claustrophobic, no view location – unless you like watching your neighbours.
    Bought 3 years ago for $1.15M. First ask was ridiculously over. Second ask is under assessed. A classic case of a rodent screwing with a seller. At the new price, the seller will achieve close to $300K plus having had a place to live for 3 years. No pain. The pain is living in this depressing location.

  42. Arnie Carnegie | 7 June 2018 at 6:46 pm | Reply

    5139 Sapphire – most of the above analysis applies – bunch of snout houses on a dead end no lane weird shaped lot in Ditchmond. Location is even worse. Bought 5 years ago for $883K Even with a supposed drop in the ludicrous first ask, that’s still over half a mil to the good plus accomodation for 5 years. Boo hoo.
    Nice to see real addresses though instead of chump charts.

    • -80% Bear | 7 June 2018 at 7:32 pm | Reply

      Again, How do you know it’ll be bought at 1.388M$?

      They renowed the place so your 500k$ is not that accurate.

  43. Arnie Carnegie | 7 June 2018 at 6:54 pm | Reply

    3080 17th Ave – when this was listed a week ago at under assessed it was a surprise. Not a top 1% location, but very good. The sold sign was on immediately. It was sold before the ink was dry. Why some gullible seller would pay a rodent to give their property away …? The list price was interesting: $1.038M. The rodent calculated quickly. “One mil plus commission equals $1.038M. I can tell my sucker seller that they’ll be walking away with a cool million”.
    But who needs a rodent to give a property away in a good location.

  44. -80% Bear | 7 June 2018 at 7:41 pm | Reply

    7651 Sunnymede Crescent, Richmond
    Jan 18:$3,380,000
    Jun 1: $2,688,000
    Change: – 692,000 -20%
    A: $3,190,000

    2736 W 13th Avenue, Vancouver
    Dec 13:$2,620,000
    Jun 1: $2,100,000
    Change: – 520,000 -20%
    A: $2,589,100

    10020 No. 2 Road, Richmond
    Apr 30:$1,638,000
    Jun 4: $1,188,000
    Change: – 450,000 -27%
    A: $1,316,000

  45. Arnie Carnegie | 7 June 2018 at 8:20 pm | Reply

    Again, Richmond is not my forte … but Sunnymede … who needs an 11,000 sq ft lot. If you can’t subdivide, it’s a burden; an $11,000/mo. alligator with a walk score of 47. Like that it’s post and beam, but in Vancouver view is #1. This has no view. It should probably drop another half mil.

  46. Arnie Carnegie | 7 June 2018 at 8:33 pm | Reply

    13th Ave W – first time for sale in almost 20 years – a “development lot”, aka a scraper of interest to a builder. Bought for under $400K. Odds are that all proceeds will be gravy for the owners, assuming they’re still alive.
    If you could handle the massive mortgage, and hold on for a few years, this place will look like a bargain. If it were south-facing, so much the more so.

  47. Arnie Carnegie | 7 June 2018 at 9:56 pm | Reply

    10020 No 2 Road: Putting aside any talk of price, street google this address and try saying with a straight face that you’d like to live here.

  48. El Ninja | 8 June 2018 at 8:09 am | Reply

    Arnie scrambling to dismiss listing after listing from -80% Bear showing massive price reductions = hilarious.

    And totally predictable. I said it a couple weeks ago. Bulls, seeing that the ship is sinking, are now clinging to life rafts, claiming only “quality” properties count. Of course, quality is totally subjective. A crafty move, but it won’t work.

  49. Arnie Carnegie | 8 June 2018 at 8:55 am | Reply

    Clueless Ninja likes to twerk and troll and look at chump charts.

  50. Arnie Carnegie | 8 June 2018 at 2:22 pm | Reply

    The Market is not a monolith. Properties are not a commodity. Two paces east or west and the whole scene changes.
    Strip out the renoflippers and make a chart.
    Strip out the Van Spec Dreck Builders and make a chart.
    Strip out new condo sales with or without the shadow-flipping and make a chart.
    Strip out properties on traffic streets … that’s the big one – the number one determinant if a property is a garbage listing or not, and make a chart. The graphs will differ wildly.
    I analysed properties in Richmond – an area in which I claim no special expertise or interest. Likewise, I have no special knowledge of the high-end market. Condos/townhouses are completely off my radar. How these would affect chump charts and my view of the “market” is irrelevant.
    I do know my part of East Van intimately. Out of 50 listings only a few will pique my interest as worthy of attention. Not surprisingly, they sell quickly without price drops.

    • El Ninja | 8 June 2018 at 2:49 pm | Reply

      You can parse the “market” down to the two houses on either side of yours, but nobody cares. Nobody cares about your own personally-convenient definition. For the purposes of this public forum, the market is everything in Vancouver and beyond. And on the whole, it is collapsing. Like it or not. Admit or not.

      It will not collapse uniformly, but make no mistake, everything will go down. East Van will go down very hard. It will return to its rightful and traditional place as the city’s low-priced ‘hood, inferior as it is in so many regards: relative lack of treed streets, lower quality of residents, higher crime, proximity to DTES horror show, distance from key attractions. The list goes on.

  51. cybergeek | 20 July 2018 at 6:19 pm | Reply

    When someone is drowning they struggle to get a better grip and maybe try some moves which only aids the deep fall….before you jump into a big sea….you must either be a pro swimmer or you got backup plan in your back PAC. Selah!!!!

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